Thursday, March 9, 2017

Calling Out Violent Islamism

American Forum for Islam and Democracy President Zuhdi Jasser echoed her ideological concerns. “We see the invocation of blasphemy laws through using the term ‘Islamophobia,'” a term with totalitarian origins often used to silence any criticism, including that of self-professed Muslims like Jasser, of Islamic doctrine. “Don’t use the term ‘Islamophobia,’ because they are trying to shut us all up from criticizing Islamic State ideology.” (Perhaps another CPAC panelist from later that day, The Hill editor Nicholas Hahn, should have considered such censorship concerns, given The Hill‘s deletion under criticism of an article by Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer.)

Like Lopez, Jasser emphasized the broad-based nature of threats anchored in Islamic doctrine, such as the Islamic State (in Iraq and – Greater – Syria, or ISIS). “We could get rid of ISIS tomorrow or next year, and then in a couple of years there will be another radical Islamic group,” he warned. Citing Saudi Arabia’s Islamic kingdom or Iran and Pakistan’s Islamic Republics, he noted that ISIS is “this monster that got created from their ideas.”

Jasser therefore sounded a call for a battle of ideas and advocated an ideological policy shift from “this nebulous, blasé ‘Countering Violent Extremism’ to ‘Countering Violent Islamism.'” Like Loudon, Jasser noted that Islamist groups are “parties that embrace the collectivism of Islam as a faith.” Therefore, there is a “bargain between the Left and Islam; it’s because they are both collectivists.”